Bing West is a correspondent for The Atlantic, currently on his 12th trip to the Anbar Province in Iraq. His son, Owen West, who is a managing director at a Wall Street bank, just returned from Anbar where he was a Marine adviser. Today's Opinion Journal features their column on conditions there. Most noteworthy is the steady but slow shift of Anbar tribal support away from al Qaeda in Iraq and toward the Iraqi and American forces.
Imagine the surprise of the veteran Iraqi battalion last November when a young sheik, leader of a local tribe outside Ramadi, offered to point out the insurgents hiding in his hometown. "We have decided that by helping you," he said, "we are helping God."
For years, the tribes had supported the insurgents who claimed to be waging jihad. Now, citing the same religion, a tribe wanted to switch sides. Col. Mohammed, the battalion commander, accepted the offer. "The irhabi (terrorists) call themselves martyrs. They are liars," he said. "I lost a soldier and when I pulled off his armor, there was the blood of a martyr."
With Iraqi soldiers and Marines providing protection, the sheik and his tribesmen rolled through town, pointing at various men. The sweep netted 30 insurgents, including "Abu Muslim," who was wanted for the murder of a jundi (Iraqi soldier). "He was just standing there waving at us with all the others," one jundi said during the minor celebration at the detention facility.
The Wests point out that the 2003 abuses at Abu Ghraib have been harmful to Iraqi and American efforts. Rather than imprison insurgent fighters until the war is over, the U.S. military and the Iraqi government have a catch-and-release system where detainees are out within a few months.
To the sheiks, it is both naïve and deadly. The Iraqi judicial system in Anbar is nonexistent. Locals are quick to relate stories of killers who returned to murder those who snitched. So it's no surprise that while most insurgents are arrested, some simply disappear. The American command in Anbar has issued a clear order barring support to any unauthorized militia. But guidance from the Iraqi ministries has been vague. If the insurgents have a complaint, they can take it up with Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki.
If there really is a civil war going on in Iraq, it's between the Anbar Sunnis and al Qaeda.
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